If you love strength and you love football, then you probably already know we’re heading into one of the best times of the year for big lifts in the weight room. May tends to be the best month to see maximal lifts shared from football players in prep for the next season.

These lifts not only bring exposure to some of the team’s strongest athletes, but it’s a great way to hype up fans for next season and create a little competition between others in the program both internally (teammates) and externally (opposition).

Yesterday, Paul Jackson the Director of Athletic Development for Football at Ole Miss shared a big squat from one of his athletes. In his video, standing at 6′ 1″ and weighing in at 318 lbs, senior defensive tackle Rossino Donelly squats a monstrous 272kg (600 lbs) with no belt, sleeves, or wraps. Check out the lift below.

One of the best parts of any college max out day, or maximal lift from a football player that we cover, is often the hype the teams brings to their comrade. We don’t know about you, but this video got us fired up to go lift.

Before moving forward let’s also address the elephant in the room that always gets brought up in the comments. Was his depth to the critiques of social media’s standard of ass to grass? No, although objectively speaking, he hit 90 degrees, and for his sport, the weight lifted, and what his goals are (excel on the field), we feel this was a solid squat.

In addition to the 272kg (600 lb) squat, Jackson also shared a bench press video from the day before featuring a few athlete. To no surprise, the video highlights Donelly once again along with two teammates making a 181kg (400 lb) bench press look easy.

Jake holds a Master's in Sports Science and a Bachelor's in Exercise Science. Currently, Jake serves as the Fitness and Training Editor at BarBend. He's a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) and has spoken at state conferences on the topics of writing in the fitness industry and building a brand. As of right now, Jake has published over 1,200 articles related to strength athletes and sports. Articles about powerlifting concepts, advanced strength & conditioning methods, and topics that sit atop a strong science foundation are Jake's bread-and-butter. On top of his personal writing, Jake edits and plans content for 15 writers and strength coaches who come from every strength sport. Prior to BarBend, Jake worked for two years as a strength and conditioning coach for hockey and lacrosse players, and a personal trainer the three years before that, and most recently he was the content writer at The Vitamin Shoppe's corporate office. Jake competes in powerlifting in the 181 lb weight class, and considers himself a professional knee rehabber after tearing his quad squatting in 2017. On the side of writing full time, Jake works as a part-time strength coach and works with clients through his personal business Concrete Athletics in New York City.

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